


The Citadel Circus

by InThroughTheSunroof



Category: Mad Max Series (Movies)
Genre: Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, circus AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-08 00:49:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5476976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InThroughTheSunroof/pseuds/InThroughTheSunroof
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You knew when the Citadel Circus came to town. First advertisements appeared in the paper, then posters. Come see the War Boys and their acrobatics, the Pole Cats who climbed like monkeys, War Rig the elephant, and the Splendid Angharad twirling above them all. The ringmaster’s skull-like half mask filled the background of the posters, large than all the other features. </p>
<p>The apocalyptic Cirque du Soleil in the desert, retold with more cirque and less apocalypse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Citadel Circus

**Author's Note:**

> Mad Max Secret Santa exchange for mad-max-war-girl! Hope you enjoy.

Halfway through Angharad’s act, Furiosa knew something was wrong. She’d spun herself up as usual, hanging with both hands from her metal hoop and pushing her feet against War Rig’s back to build speed until the winch lifted her up and up above the ring. It was Furiosa’s favorite moment of the show - all the women were spectacular aerialists, but the Splendid Angharad truly earned her billing. She looked like a bird set free as she spun overhead, the hoop’s movement giving the illusion that she was turning herself inside out through impossibly graceful shapes.

But she wasn’t doing that today. Instead she stretched out with her body nearly horizontal to the ground and stayed there. It was a relatively secure pose as long as she kept both hands on the hoop, and one that slowed her rotation as much as possible. It was also her signal that something was wrong and she needed to come down immediately.

Next to Furiosa, Toast murmured “That’s not good.” Furiosa looked toward the controller’s booth, wondering if she needed to get their attention, but they were already lowering Angharad’s hoop again. She cued War Rig forwards, and the elephant obediently moved out of the center of the ring. The takeoffs and landings from his back were spectacular, but if Angharad was having trouble it was much safer for her to come to the ground instead of the howdah where the other white-clad women sat. Two white-painted stagehands appeared at the edge of the ring, ready to help Angharad as soon as she touched down if she needed it. 

“Let me down.” Capable said. Furiosa heard tension in her voice. The audience didn’t know anything was wrong yet, and if they were lucky they could play it off like Angharad’s quick descent was part of the show. The Doof and his band had already skipped to the final section of Angharad’s music like the pros they were. Furiosa told War Rig to kneel. He hesitated for a moment - this wasn’t part of their usual act, was she sure this was right? - before ponderously settling himself down. Capable and the Dag jumped to the ground before he stopped moving. 

Angharad moved to hang below the hoop as it approached the ground, dragging her toes in the ring’s sawdust to slow her spin. She finally let go and bowed gracefully to the audience. They cheered and whistled, and at the lead drummer’s cue the Doof transitioned to the finale music. Angharad smiled at Capable and the Dag, took their arms, and carefully walked out of the ring as War Boys ran in. Furiosa got War Rig up and to the back of the ring for their next cue.

The finale ran according to plan, and while War Rig’s back looked a bit empty with only two women, the audience didn’t seem to care. They whooped for the war boys, who whooped back, and roared louder than the Doof’s wall of speakers when Immortan Joe raised his hands to bring the lights down for the last time. 

_______

 

Furiosa knocked on the door of the aerialists’ trailer an hour later. Backstage gossip said that Angharad had felt nauseous, nothing worse, so Furiosa had taken her time getting War Rig settled and herself washed up. 

The aerialists’ trailer had an aluminum finish that made it stand out from the rest of the circus’s fleet. Their vehicles were dirty and battered and looked like a refugee camp on the move, except for the gleaming vehicle with Angharad’s likeness engraved on the side. Joe had had it made custom with money that he didn’t really have. It was a showcase for his prizes more than a comfortable home for the women, and it made Furiosa’s skin crawl.

Capable answered the door wrapped in a threadbare pink bathrobe. 

“How’s Angharad?” Furiosa asked.

“Resting. Come in?” Capable stepped back to let Furiosa in. 

The interior of the trailer was as richly finished as the outside. Everything was soft, from the thick carpet to overstuffed furnishings to the indirect light. Capable’s hair glowed in messy curls. Toast sat at a makeup table removing the last traces of eye makeup, while Cheedo and the Dag sprawled on each other on the trailer’s large couch reading a magazine together. At a second glance, Furiosa realized Cheedo’s leg was wrapped behind the Dag’s neck. Furiosa blinked. The pair were aerial contortion specialists who’d joined the circus six months back. While acrobats were never know for sitting on a couch in the normal manner, these two took it to a new level that Furiosa hadn’t gotten used to yet.

Furiosa helped herself to a cup of delicately scented green tea. She despised the Immortan’s gifts and usually avoided them when she could, but the tea in the mess tent was horrid. “So what happened today?”

“Angharad said it was the inversion. She wasn’t nauseous when we were spinning during the doubles act, but we don’t go upside down then.” Capable said.

Furiosa nodded. From the acrobat’s perspective, turning upside down while spinning made the spin appear to stop momentarily and then reverse direction. It was a special kind of stomach-churning, but nothing that Angharad hadn’t done thousands of times. 

“We walked her back here, she puked, and then went to bed.” The Dag said, putting down the magazine. “Got handled well. Smart to move War Rig out of the way.”

Furiosa nodded again. She leaned against the countertop and blew on her tea to cool it. “The finale wasn’t affected either. Pretty good outcome for an act getting cut short. Heard from Joe yet?”

The women shook their heads. “Thought you might have.” Capable said grimly. 

Toast snorted. “Not like he needs an excuse to yell at us.” 

Furiosa grimaced. “We handled it well. He’s got no reason-”

The Dag barked a laugh, and wiggled out from under Cheedo. She walked over to Furiosa and leaned over her, taller than the older woman even when she was barefoot and Furiosa was not. Her robe had been wrapped tightly around her neck, and now she undid it. Her neck was covered in bruises. 

“He’s stopped even trying to pretend the marks on us are from training. It doesn’t matter what we do, it’s all an excuse for more.” 

Furiosa’s stomach churned, and she dropped her gaze to the floor.

The Dag’s voice rose. “And you just turn away! Everyone turns away while we -”

“Dag. Dag!” Toast tried to break in.

“- get used like personal chew toys-”

“Dag, enough.” Angharad spoke from the hall to their sleeping quarters. “It’s not her fault, she’s as stuck as we are.” She looked sleepy, wrapped in a sweatshirt and her stage makeup smeared across her face.

The Dag snarled at Angharad, then brushed past her to disappear into the back of the trailer. Angharad moved further into the room.

 

“She’s got every right to be mad.” Furiosa muttered. 

The trailer was quiet for a moment, then Angharad spoke.

“I’m pregnant.” 

No-one breathed. Then Capable rushed to her friend and wrapped her arms around her. “Angharad, no! It’s just the flu that’s been going around-”

“Miss Giddy smuggled a test in for me.”

“No! We’ll get you to a doctor.”

“You think he’ll let me? You’ve heard him talk about a son. I’ll be watched twice as closely now.”

“These damn contracts-”

“Screw contracts, we can go to the police with this!”

“Not in this district we can’t.” The women’s voices started overlapping. Furiosa carefully set down her tea. 

“I’ll get you out.” Furiosa said quietly.

Angharad turned to look at her, and so did the other women.

“I’ll get in touch with my family. They’ll take you.”

Angharad spoke. “Furiosa, Joe would kill you.” 

“He can’t afford to, and he knows that. War Rig won’t answer to anyone else, and with tickets down he needs all of his attractions.”

“So he’ll come after us twice as hard.” Toast pointed out.

“My family - they’re a troupe that performs up North. Joe won’t have the pull with law enforcement there. And my family doesn’t get along with the law so much anyway.”

“We can’t leave you here.” Cheedo said.

“But I’m not leaving War Rig either.” Furiosa said firmly. “Let me make sure this is possible. I’ll call my aunts in the morning. Then we can argue about whether I’m coming.”


End file.
